John McAfee said he does not want to turn himself him in because he believes that the police will kill him. / Sofia Munoz, AP

by Nancy Trejos, USA TODAY

by Nancy Trejos, USA TODAY

Ambergris Caye, Belize - Nobody seems to know where John McAfee, multimillionaire software developer, is hiding out. And his message to the world is simple: He's going to stay on the lam in this tiny Central American nation as long as he can.

McAfee told USA TODAY on Monday that he is not mentally ill and he is not going to cooperate with police investigating the bizarre circumstances of his neighbor shot to death in the beach-side mansion next door to his.

In a telephone interview, he emphatically said he didn't kill American expat Gregory Faull, 52, who was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head on Nov. 11. Faull, a contractor from Florida, had complained about McAfee's dogs, four of whom were later poisoned to death.

"I'll be frank, I was not fond of Mr. Faull," McAfee said. But McAfee said Faull "was not anywhere near my list of people who angered me. ‚?¶ He was just a neighbor annoyed with barking dogs."

McAfee, 67, has been in hiding since Faull's body was found. National Belize Police spokesman Raphael Martinez said on Monday that McAfee is not a suspect but that he is a "person of interest" and that police want to question him.

McAfee said he is still in Belize but would not reveal his whereabouts. Over the weekend, he started a blog - Whoismcafee.com - in which he described coloring his beard and hair almost white and darkening his skin with shoe polish while on the run with a girlfriend. In a bizarre twist, he told other media outlets on Friday that he was actually still at his house.

Police did not find him Saturday when they searched his compound, which consists of a main house and almost a dozen smaller shacks overlooking the stunning turquoise sea.

McAfee said he does not want to turn himself in because he believes that the police will kill him. He referred to the case of suspected gang leader Arthur Young, who was allegedly shot and killed while in police custody in April.

"They want me to turn myself in for questioning just like they asked Arthur Young to turn himself in. He turned himself in, and he was killed," McAfee said.

He has offered a reward of $25,000 Belize dollars, about $12,500 in the U.S., for any information leading to the arrest of the killer.

Martinez denied that police would harm McAfee.

"He says all sorts of strange stuff, and this is just one of them," he said. "It's totally unfounded as far as I'm concerned and it's ridiculous. We don't go around just killing people randomly around here."

McAfee and Faull had beachfront houses about 300 yards away from each other in northern Ambergris Caye, a picturesque enclave about 6

miles from the town of San Pedro that is home to many American ex-pats and luxury resorts.

McAfee moved to the former pirate haven about five years ago after making a fortune in Silicon Valley. He founded the antivirus software company that bears his name in 1989 and abruptly quit in 1994 to start an instant-messaging platform. He bought property in New Mexico so he could fly motorized hang gliders before making his way to Belize.

In 2010, he sold the software company to Intel for $7 billion.

Belize seemed the perfect place for McAfee to escape to. Amy Herbert, a close friend who says she was once engaged to McAfee, said he loved sailing, snorkeling and fishing. "He loves adventures," she said while playing with one of his dogs on the pier directly in front of his house.

"He loves telling jokes," Herbert said. "Telling stories, interesting stories about his life or interesting people he's met over the years."

He also loved women, Herbert said. He had many girlfriends, often much younger than he is. "He likes girls; lots of them," she said.

San Pedro Mayor Daniel Guerrero, who owns property next door to McAfee, said the tech pioneer was generous to his adopted country. He donated a $1 million boat to the Coast Guard. Weeks before the murder, he also gave thousands of dollars' worth of equipment such as handcuffs and metal detectors to the same police department that is hunting him down.

But he had grown increasingly worried about his safety. He hired bodyguards and amassed a large collection of guns. McAfee said all his guns were legally registered. Martinez said some people on McAfee's property were found with illegally registered guns last week.

McAfee has had previous run-ins with police. In April, they raided another one of his properties and accused him of running a meth lab.

"His house was raided, but he was never charged of wrongdoing," Martinez said.

McAfee said he doesn't drink alcohol or do drugs.

"I have not done drugs for 33, 34 years," he said. "I am very opposed to the use of drugs."

Jeff Spiegel, owner of Rojo Beach bar a few doors down from McAfee's compound, met Faull about 10 years ago. Faull frequented the bar and became good friends wih Spiegel. Faull was an affable man who loved mai tais, entertaining in his large kitchen, and improving his house, which he had built himself.

"Greg moved down here to build a dream," Spiegel said. "Unlike most people, he built it himself with his own two hands."

Faull was also opininated, Spiegel said. He rarely backed down from an argument.

Guerrero said that about a month before the murder, he had received a written complaint from Faull about McAfee. Faull had said that McAfee's dogs were too loud, that there was too much vehicle traffic on McAfee's property in a town where golf carts and bikes are the main mode of transportation, and that McAfee's bodyguards had trespassed on Faull's property.

Days before the murder, four of McAfee's dogs were found poisoned. Martinez said that when police went to McAfee's property to investigate, the dogs had already been buried.

McAfee said that an apparently intoxicated Faull had threatened to shoot the dogs recently. But he said he does not believe Faull killed his dogs because Faull was also a dog owner. "No dog lover would tolerate seeing a dog suffer," he said.

He said he believes police were responsible for his dogs' deaths. "I'm sorry to sound paranoid but I really do," he said.

McAfee said police are after him because he did not contribute money to the ruling party in government.

"I do not play by the rules," he said. "Rich foreigners are expected to pay their dues here and that is to donate to the ruling party. I choose to not do that."

McAfee said he is not mentally unstable. "I don't feel crazy," he said.